Juventus #1 - Why Juve

Killing two birds with one stone here. The next team I'm writing about is Juventus for the month of February. I came to the decision after much deliberation and there were a number of other candidates both in Italy and in Britain. I'll also analyze the post-internationals game against Verona at the Allianz Stadium.

Long story short, I went through an internal debate over whether I should write about a team I like or not. I had already ruled out the big English clubs and the ones playing on ESPN+ (aka German and Spanish), so that left the Serie A, Celtic/Rangers, and the lesser English teams. Something about the imbalance of talent and depth in England bothered me, as outside the top few, there are maybe 3 or 4 players I rate in any given club. From one year to the next, most of these clubs have no chance to win a domestic cup and will either battle relegation or have a boring season finishing mid table. This season, in particular, you have the usual suspects at the top going for the title and CL spots, and pretty much 4 teams trying to not get relegated. Also, I actually don't like the transition from mid table teams like Brighton, Palace and Wolves going from defensive football to playing "the right way". I think it's horrible for the league. Parking the bus gained popularity because it's effective. It's one thing for Bielsa to coach his gung ho football, but teams with mediocre PL level talent trying to play out from the back and walk it into the net just makes it easier for the top sides. I watched Celtic-Rangers and decided neither of those were for me, either.

Thus, it was a choice between the Italian clubs still playing in Europe (Atalanta, Inter, Juventus, Napoli, Roma). I dismissed Roma because I don't like watching Mourinho teams at this point, plus they're in the tinpot competition. I ruled out Napoli because there's something off about that club. I can't put my finger on it. That Sarri season when the broke the 90 point mark was supposed to be something that would go down in history, and then it just didn't. They then had Gattuso actually win something playing horrible football, which is pretty depressing. Now it's better, sure, and I'm fond of a number of their players (Osimhen, Fabian, Koulibaly, Petagna) but something's still off. They also play Barcelona, which is a glamor tie, for better or worse. Atalanta is my preferred Serie A club, and that's both positive and negative. I know the club really well now, and at times I get a little too invested to cover them objectively. Plus, I don't like the "well run" aspect, as I see it more as the owner running a business and not a football club looking to win trophies. That left Inter and Juve. Part of me, as someone who's followed Liverpool for damn near 10 years now, thought what the hell, let's cover the club they're facing in the CL. I also like Inter, and I'd say they're my second "favorite" after Atalanta, despite the fact that I have both Milan and Roma merch. But then I watched the derby and realized how much more open they play compared to last year, and my expectation is Liverpool will roll them over. The title race also tightened immensely in one match-week with Milan winning H2H against them and Napoli sitting a point behind as well. So yeah, it was Juventus by process of elimination.

I've seen a decent amount of Villarreal, as they were in the same CL group as Atalanta. Plus, I've had an ESPN+ sub on and off, so I've seen them in the Copa as well as the league. It's a matchup of flawed squads with coaches that aren't built to win in modern football. That's the best way I can say it. I've cone back and forth a bit in terms of who I think the favorite is, and in reality it'll play out on the pitch for the world to see. I'll go way more in depth with this as the first leg approaches.

Finally, at least for the background stuff, I have to address the transfer window that just closed. The incomings were Vlahovic and Zakaria, while the outgoings were Bentancur, Kulusevski, and Ramsey. Also, and this is obviously unfortunate, but Chiesa recently tore his ACL and will be out for the foreseeable future. This basically means there are two wingers who both prefer the same (right) side at the club (Bernardeschi and Cuadrado). I can see this causing problems as there's no width in the side, and teams can simply clog the middle and stifle the attack. We'll see that in the Verona game, which will be the next post.

In summary, I haven't consistently watched full Juve games, possibly ever. The club is transitioning from a one-man team to an actual team, which is what they built their success upon. I don't like Allegri at this point in football, but he's there, so you deal with it. I like that the club has tons of fans worldwide, but isn't super popular amongst English audiences. This month will be pivotal, and with the new signings and state of other clubs there is no excuse not to capitalize.

The rest of the schedule for the month, just to have it written down somewhere, is as follows:

Feb 6 - Verona (H)

Feb 10 - Sassuolo (H), Coppa

Feb 13 - Atalanta (A)

Feb 18 - Torino (H)

Feb 22 - Villarreal (A), Champions

Feb 27 - Empoli (A)

Should really be winning three of the four league games and not losing any. Atalanta are not in the best of shape and lost to Cagliari earlier today, plus they have the two-leg tie against an Olympiacos team that should be respected. Juve won the Coppa last season, so the desire might not be there, which IMO is fine. The big game is obviously leg one at Villarreal. I think they got rid of away goals, but you still have to take care of business from the start.